South Carolina hospitality group brings pair of restaurants to Tampa

Tampa residents looking to indulge in more than the usual burgers and pizza spots can whet their appetites with two new restaurants coming late 2024 and early 2025. 

Charleston, South Carolina-based Indigo Road Hospitality Group plans to open concepts on the ground floor and the rooftop of the Bayshore Gardens project. 

Maru is the first location of its kind and will reside in the rooftop space beginning in fall 2024. The 60 inside seats and 30 outside seats will have access to views of Tampa Bay throughout.

The restaurant will serve Nikkei, which is a Japanese-Peruvian cuisine based on Japanese emigration to Peru at the turn of the 20th century. Japanese residents had local ingredients at their disposal and incorporated their native cooking techniques. (For instance, Peruvian ceviche was historically made with cooked fish and lime juice, and the Japanese introduced the idea of raw fish with lime.)

O-Ku, a sushi concept with locations around the Southeast and Washington, D.C., will open at street level in 2025 with 141 seats inside and 26 seats outside. Culinary Director Masa Hamaya was born and raised in Japan and emphasizes the importance of tradition in each dish.

The restaurants are from James Beard Award semifinalists Steve Palmer and Kimball Brienza. “We’re thrilled to be part of the exciting changes happening in the Tampa market,” says Steve Palmer, founder and chief vision officer at Indigo Road Hospitality Group in a statement. “Asana Partners has done an incredible job of reimagining Bayshore Gardens, and we’re honored to be a part of the project. We look forward to introducing O-Ku to a new community and to bringing another brand-new concept, Maru, to life.”

The Indigo Road Hospitality Group was founded in 2009 and has received multiple accolades from Forbes and the James Beard Foundation.